Easter 2014

Brigham, posing on Easter basket Eve so Josh can figure out the new lens on the camera. 

 Benson, happy to not be bothered by his brother for a minute!

 My Easter bunny always came on Saturday morning, to help Easter be more about the Savior and less about the Easter bunny.  That is a tradition that I love carrying on with my kids.

 Brigham just found his Easter basket!

 And Benny found his!

 After church on Sunday, we attended a picnic with some of the families from Josh's office at Nanstein Castle.  It was a beautiful day and a nice way to spend Easter Sunday.

 The kids even got to do a little egg hunt...at a castle...no big deal.

 Here are a few family pictures.  None of them are good, but the important part is that we took them, right?

Bruges, day 2

The next morning, we wanted to see the inside of the places we had already seen the day before.  We started at the Basilica of the Holy Blood.  The church houses a venerated relic of the Holy Blood allegedly collected by Joseph of Arimathea and brought from the Holy Land by Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders.  

 This window tells the story.

 We were there just in time to see the little ceremony that they do however many times a day.  There is a priest (?) who comes in carrying the relic, places it on an altar, tells a bit about it, and invites people to come to the front, pay their money to support the basilica and have a moment with the Holy Blood.  We didn't feel the need to participate, but it was interesting to see what all went on inside.  Whether you believe it or not, the church is pretty neat to see - being built in the 1100's with some of it remaining unchanged!

 You know why he's so happy?

 Because Benny and I were in line for waffles and ice cream.  It's a good thing I don't live in Belgium...I may weigh 1000 pounds.

 We stopped at a Pizza Hut lunch buffet, where Ben took a nap on the floor.  The food was good, but there was no dessert pizza - which was a minor let down since that has always been my favorite part of pizza buffets.  Let's be honest - any buffets. While he finished his nap in the stroller, we hit up a couple of chocolate stores and stopped for a sit at this church, which I think is St. Salvator's Cathedral.

 An interesting fact for you - see how raised up the road is? (It's back behind Josh and Benny.)  Well, supposedly, they used to just throw trash in the road which built up, got packed down, and is now significantly higher than the original level where the cathedral is built.

 These next few are inside the Church of Our Lady - where the Madonna and Child is located. It was being renovated inside, but was still pretty impressive.

 It's hard to explain how large this painting was, but it filled up an ENTIRE wall!

 I thought these doors were awesome-looking.

 Here she is.

 And here is a guy putting a vacuum away in a closet, that I would have assumed was a door that led to some super-secret spot.  Nope - just a closet.

 We finished up in Bruges and decided to hit Knokke Beach, which is about 20 minutes from where we were staying.  The boys had never seen the ocean, so we let them play for a bit (which was not nearly long enough!).

Benny has talked and talked about the ocean, the beach, the sand, the water, the seashells, etc.  I think we need to get back to another beach again soon.  Maybe a warm one this time!

Bruges

After we had had enough of Amsterdam, we decided to stop in Bruges on the way home.  It is a little gem of a city and we will likely make it there again sometime.  Does anybody want to volunteer to come with me? Benson learned in Bruges that the horse says, "clip-clop".  There were charming carriage tours around the city, so he was always on the lookout for some horsies.  We can't take a carriage tour however, because our children have sensitive noses.  Brigham is like a hound dog, always the first one to notice any new scent.  Benny has an allergy to poop.  Anytime he smells it (even his own) he begins to dry-heave.  We will stick with the boat tours.  Those likely draw fewer looks for our family.  

 

The Church of Our Lady tower, one of the world's tallest brick buildings/towers.  Michelangelo's Madonna and Child is found here.

 Josh and the boys, with the Belfry tower in the distance.

The boys and me.  I don't remember being as mad as I look here...

The boys were waiting for me while I waited for some lunch in a crowded little cafe.

Eating Josh's ham and cheese sandwich while I wait for the rest of the order (see waffle picture below).

Brigham's favorite way to see Europe!

Entering the back door of the belfry tower courtyard.

Market Square

One of Bruges' most famous landmarks - the 13th century belfry, housing a municipal carillon comprising of 48 bells.  A full-time carillonneur is still employed by the city.

The city hall on Burg square.

The Basilica of the Holy Blood.

The boys, sharing tastes of lollipops.

 Another view of city hall.

We went to a chocolate museum, Choco-Story.  The museum itself was pretty boring, all about the history of chocolate.  We learned some things, so I guess it was worthwhile.  

They did do a demonstration at the end of the tour.  The chocolatier gave the demonstration in 3 languages, one sentence at a time.  I feel really stupid and ignorant, speaking only one language (and it not very well sometimes!). And we got a delicious little morsel at the end, which definitely made it worthwhile.  Ahh - Belgian chocolate.

 Waiting for our 'boat ride'.

Josh set up the camera on the tripod and used the remote to take these photos.  I put both of the pictures so you can see him in his new photo-taking pose.  

Some beautiful canal shots.

This bridge was so wide! It was low too, so almost all of the men on the boat reached up to touch it as we went underneath! (Just like my 5th-grade boys used to do as they would leave the classroom and jump to touch the doorway.  I guess it's a male thing.)

My boys.

Another view of the belfry.

A cool mailbox deserves a picture, right?

 And so does a garbage can, apparently.

Smelling the tulips (and doing something else!?) outside the hotel.

A family shot by the swans.  We were out in the evening and practically had the whole town to ourselves.

 I hadn't seen a wall like this before, although Josh said they have them all over the world.  There was broken glass all over the top, to keep out intruders and whatever else.

The other side of the dangerous-looking wall.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of whatever was over there!

 Benny, enjoying a quiet bench.  He sat there while I ordered waffles and Brigham sat in the runaway stroller.  I went to pay for the waffles (yes, we had them again that day) and turned to find that the stroller was missing!  Brigham had rolled into a nice English couple about 20 feet awaywho were enjoying their evening at the outside tables.  Luckily they were nice and they saw him coming and caught him before he crashed into them.  They didn't seem too bothered, which I was grateful for.

Day 2 Bruges coming soon.  Pictures take forever to load!